Do Bad Teeth Equal Bad Grades?

There are some obvious pitfalls for those children with bad teeth, including self-esteem issues, poor quality of life, and uncontrollable pain.

However, a new study suggests that kids walking around with busted-out, rotten grills may actually suffer more academically.

Researchers from the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC recently conducted a study of approximately 1,500 underprivileged kids in the Los Angeles area.

What they found was that poor oral hygiene can have an adverse effect on a student's academic performance. For example, kids suffering from tooth pain were found to be four times more likely to have lower grade point averages than students with superior dental health.

That’s not all. The study also discovered that children with dental issues are often more susceptible to being absent from school, with kids having poor dental hygiene missing three more days of school than other kids.

Researchers believe their study proves that not only is good oral hygiene essential for kids to feel good about themselves, but it also plays an important role in academic performance.

Heath experts say that parents need to be more focused of their children’s oral hygiene habits, as they are seeing more preschool age kids showing up to the dentist these days with as many as 10 cavities at a time.